Well, I asked Eric Wedge on the final day of Arizona spring training about his plans for Franklin Gutierrez and he was pretty clear about how he intended to ease the center fielder into regular season play.

Tonight’s lineup just came out and Gutierrez isn’t in it.

Oakland is sending right-hander Jarrod Parker to the mound and that means Michael Saunders — the leadoff platoon man versus righties — is batting first. But Kyle Seager has now been moved up to second in the order.

Saunders will play in center, Raul Ibanez goes to left field and Michael Morse is in right. So, it’s not like we weren’t told this type of stuff might happen early. We’ll see whether there’s any type of Gutierrez health issue involved or whether it’s just Wedge sticking to what he said he’d be doing early on.